Barbara Heller's Dead Bird Tapestries

I love discovering new artists and despite living in an isolated community with a less than interesting art section at the local library and no public art galleries I seem to find ways to stay connected to the art world. Whether it is through Galleries West Magazine, stumbling through Pinterest or having someone share something with me via Facebook I am constantly inspired by my fellow creators, especially the ones that stray into the realm of morbid decay.

I grabbed a copy of Galleries West Magazine after running a workshop at the local artist community centre and as I flipped through it I happened to see an advertisement for Barbara Heller's show. At first the image didn't register but when I looked again and the threads wove themselves together I was astonished and excited to see more.

Of course I immediately did a search for more images of her work hoping so much that this wasn't a one off. And I wasn't disappointed. I discovered a handful of boldly coloured tapestries with delicate images of dead birds which happens to be one of my favourite subjects.

I find Heller's work interesting on a number of levels. First I love the images, the placement and the fine line work that seems to appear and disappear from the surface. I can't even imagine how difficult it must have been to plan out and create an image with such subtle detail, as if she planned out every single stitch. The delicacy of the decay she evokes in the surface is incredible and I imagine that from afar for just a moment one might mistake them for paintings or drawings.

Secondly I love the ideas that seem to merge in her work. Without having read anything about the artists intention I think of things like death shrouds and historical records, hunting tapestries and flannel sleeping bag linings. I want to imagine these as patterns for some reason.

I look forward to seeing more of this work and secretly hope she stitches up a few more animals.

You can see more of Barbara's work on her website.

 

 

 

 

 

Karin Ceelen

Another Pinterest discovery was Karin Ceelen who makes gorgeous, delicate etchings with intricate line work and subtle tone. I find her work compelling in its texture which remind me a lot of maps and geography. I love the cutout and layering as well which add richness and layers to the pieces. 

She is also a photographer and on her blog you can see the photographs that inspire her print work.

Comments are always welcome.

Lee Bonetcou

I am not sure how or why I never learned about this incredible artist when I was in art school and the more art I seem to "discover" on my own makes me more and more angry about the canon of art excluding and without  mention absolutely incredible women artists. But before I launch any further into a rant about the gaping holes in the canon of western art let's meet Lee Bontecou.

Lee Bontecou was a very successful artist in the late 1950's and the 1960's. She was represented by New York Galleries and her shows consistently sold out. Much of her work is in permanent collections in places like New York, Washington, Chicago, and San Francisco. She disappeared from the gallery world after her daughter was born, teaching at Brooklyn College and working in solitude and isolation for nearly thirty years. A retrospective of her work both the early sculptural work and her later works on paper was exhibited at the Hammer Museum in LA in 2003. The show later travelled to MOCA in San Francisco and to MOMA in New York in 2004.


In the early part of her career she worked mainly in sculpture creating massive pieces which project off the gallery wall toward the viewer. She combines traditional materials of painting, canvas and her pieces hang on the wall like a traditional painting but they are anything BUT traditional. Her pieces include welded and stitched canvas and hide which feel industrial and mechanical yet organic in a terrible haunting sort of way. Each piece contains at its centre a vortex completely void of light – literally a black hole.

She was greatly influences by the trauma of World War 2 and later by space exploration and the world of astronomy but she refuses to label herself or her work. It is very clear that she doesn't care what you think of her work and struggles against anyone who may try to define it.

Lee Bontecou just celebrated her 83 birthday and is still working away in her studio doing whatever the hell she pleases, no doubt. I will leave you with a quote that struck me as vital to understanding the creative process:

"[Drawing] can get your imagination moving and you can work from your inner world rather than always from the external world"

Soot Drawing 1958

 You read more about this incredibe artist and her work here and to see more of her work do a google image search or type her name into Pinterest

Have a look at her work and share your thoughts and comments below.

 

Rebecca Haines

These days Pinterest is serving as the best place for me to discover new artists who inspire my work. I have a number of "new" artists I'll be featuring this year so make sure to join the blog to stay tuned.

Rebecca Haines is as interested in animals as I am. She has lived and worked in Wyoming, Colorado California and New Mexico. Her work is an exploration of that moment when humans and animals meet. At that moment when Animals and humans share a space there is the potential to learn something if you can put down your iPhone camera and stop talking.

Haines work invites you to look more closely, to stop and meditate on the moment of interaction with a wild animal so that you might be able to activate that memory of wild in your own DNA and connect with the natural world from which we have so neatly excised ourselves.

Take some time to really look at the shifting image and delicate subtleties of her work and you might come away with a moment of understanding.

You can see her work here or visit the Tom Ross Gallery.

Ronald Ceuppens

I have found many new artists to explore from perusing the amazing things posted on Pinterest. I never expected it would become such a source of inspiration for me and my work. I have discovered a handful of incredible print artists there in the last little while and I am excited to share them with you.

The first one is Ronald Ceuppens, a Belgian printmaker. Unfortunately for me, his site is in Belgian and I cannot quite grasp the exact impetus for his work but that hardly matters once you see it. I am particularly interested in the arrangement of print fragments and collage elements in his "collections". I am also fascinated by his mixed media work about children.

His work is excellently crafted and evokes a sense of memory or dream although the results are often unsettling. I am drawn to the Dreamchild object, what appears to be a doll body encased in leather with ceramic branches for arms. It is unclear if this "child" is a memory or manifestation of birth or death or a physical representation of an imagined spirit.

Many of the pieces below are available in Ronald's Etsy Shop Fleurografie. I highly recommend having a look at the work he has posted there. If you would like to see more of Ronald's work be sure to visit his blog.

 

I discovered this little description in English on his blog though I am unsure of the source:

He likes long walks, hiking in the mountains or simply exploring the city. The itineraries of his walks are found in his work, reduces to their abstract form. Using sketches, drawings and objects collected during his walks, Ronald makes the designs for his prints. Reproduced in a repetitive manner they give rise to serial work in which each work speaks individually. The reconstructions of images made up of such fragments is a way of preserving the memory of a place The artist manages to translate nostalgia for the past into a search for future pleasure. Ronald Ceuppens creates an abstract world, filled with the sensitive melody of silence and serenity.